Michael Schumacher (German pronunciation:[ˈmɪçaʔeːl ˈʃuːmaxɐ]listen); born 3 January 1969) is a German Formula One racing driver for the Mercedes GP team. Famous for his eleven-year spell with Ferrari, Schumacher is a seven-time World Champion and is widely regarded as one of the greatest F1 drivers of all time.[1][2][3][4] He holds many of the formula's driver records,
including most championships, race victories, fastest laps, pole
positions, points scored and most races won in a single season – 13 in 2004. In 2002
he became the only driver in Formula One history to finish in the top
three in every race of a season and then also broke the record for most
consecutive podium finishes. According to the official Formula One
website he is "statistically the greatest driver the sport has ever
seen".

After beginning with karting, Schumacher won German drivers' championships in Formula König and Formula Three before joining Mercedes in the World Sportscar Championship. After one Mercedes-funded race for the Jordan Formula One team Schumacher signed as a driver for the Benetton
Formula One team in 1991. After winning consecutive championships with
Benetton in 1994/5, Schumacher moved to Ferrari in 1996 and won another
five consecutive drivers' titles with them from 2000–2004. Schumacher
retired from Formula One driving in 2006 staying with Ferrari as an
advisor. Schumacher agreed to return for Ferrari part-way through 2009, as cover for the badly injured Felipe Massa, but was prevented by a neck injury. He later signed a 3-year contract to drive for the new Mercedes GP team starting in 2010.

His career has not been without controversy, including being twice
involved in collisions in the final race of a season that determined the
outcome of the world championship, with Damon Hill in 1994 in Adelaide, and with Jacques Villeneuve in 1997 in Jerez.

Off the track Schumacher is an ambassador for UNESCO
and a spokesman for driver safety. He has been involved in numerous
humanitarian efforts throughout his life and donated tens of millions of
dollars to charity. Michael and his younger brother Ralf Schumacher are the only brothers to win races in Formula One, and they were the first brothers to finish 1st and 2nd in the same race, in Montreal in 2001, and there again (in switched order) in 2003.

Early years

Schumacher was born in Hürth, North Rhine-Westphalia, West Germany, to Rolf Schumacher, a bricklayer, and his wife Elisabeth. When Schumacher was four, his father modified his pedal kart by adding a small motorcycle engine. When Schumacher crashed it into a lamp post in Kerpen, his parents took him to the karting
track at Kerpen-Horrem, where he became the youngest member of the
karting club. His father soon built him a kart from discarded parts and
at the age of six Schumacher won his first club championship. To support
his son's racing, Rolf Schumacher took on a second job renting and
repairing karts, while his wife worked at the track's canteen.
Nevertheless, when Schumacher needed a new engine costing 800 DM, his parents were unable to afford it; Michael was able to continue racing with support from local businessmen.

Regulations in Germany require a driver to be at least 14 years old
to obtain a kart license. To get around this, Schumacher obtained a
license in Luxembourg at the age of 12.

In 1983, he obtained his German license, a year after he won the
German Junior Kart Championship. From 1984 on, Schumacher won many
German and European kart championships. He joined Eurokart dealer Adolf
Neubert in 1985 and by 1987 he was the German and European kart
champion, then he quit school and began working as a mechanic. In 1988
he made his first step into single-seat car racing by participating in
the German Formula Ford and Formula König series, winning the latter.

Formula One career

Overview

Schumacher was noted throughout his career for his ability to produce
fast laps at crucial moments in a race, to push his car to the very
limit for sustained periods.
Motor sport author Christopher Hilton observed in 2003 that "A measure
of a driver's capabilities is his performance in wet races, because the
most delicate car control and sensitivity are needed", and noted that
like other great drivers, Schumacher's record in wet conditions shows
very few mistakes: up to the end of the 2003 season, Schumacher won 17
of the 30 races in wet conditions he contested. Some of Schumacher's best performances occurred in such conditions, earning him the nicknames "Regenkönig" (rain king) or "Regenmeister" (rain master).,
even in the non-German language media. He is known as "the Red Baron",
because of his red Ferrari and in reference to the German Manfred von Richthofen, the famous flying ace of World War I. Schumacher's nicknames include "Schumi", "Schuey" and "Schu". Schumacher is often credited with popularising Formula One in Germany, where it was formerly considered a fringe sport.
When Schumacher retired in 2006, three of the top ten drivers were
German, more than any other nationality and more than have ever been
present in Formula One history. Younger German drivers, such as Sebastian Vettel, felt Schumacher was key in their becoming Formula One drivers. In the latter part of his Formula One career, and as one of the senior drivers, Schumacher was the president of the Grand Prix Drivers' Association. In a 2006 FIA survey, Michael Schumacher was voted the most popular driver of the season among Formula One fans.

Debut

Schumacher made his Formula One debut with the Jordan-Ford team at the 1991 Belgian Grand Prix, driving car number 32 as a replacement for the imprisoned Bertrand Gachot. Schumacher, still a contracted Mercedes driver, was signed by Eddie Jordan after Mercedes paid Jordan $150,000 for his debut. The week before the race, Schumacher impressed Jordan designer Gary Anderson and team manager Trevor Foster during a test drive at Silverstone. His manager Willi Weber assured Jordan that Schumacher knew the challenging Spa track well, although in fact he had only seen it as a spectator. During the race weekend, team-mate Andrea de Cesaris
was meant to show Schumacher the circuit but was held up with contract
negotiations. Schumacher then learned the track on his own, by cycling
around the track on a fold-up bike he had brought with him.
He impressed the paddock by qualifying seventh in this race. This
matched the team's season-best grid position, and out-qualified 11-year
veteran de Cesaris. Motorsport journalist Joe Saward reported that after
qualifying "clumps of German journalists were talking about 'the best
talent since Stefan Bellof'" Schumacher retired on the first lap of the race with clutch problems.

Benetton

After his debut, and despite Jordan's signed agreement in principle with Schumacher's Mercedes management for the remainder of the season, Schumacher was signed by Benetton-Ford
for the following race. Jordan applied for an injunction in the UK
courts to prevent Schumacher driving for Benetton, but lost the case as
they had not yet signed a contract. Schumacher finished the 1991 season with four points out of six races. His best finish was fifth in his second race, the Italian Grand Prix, in which he finished ahead of his team-mate and three-time World Champion Nelson Piquet.

At the start of the 1992 season the Sauber
team, planning their Formula One debut with Mercedes backing for the
following year, invoked a clause in Schumacher's contract which stated
that if Mercedes entered Formula One, Schumacher would drive for them.
It was eventually agreed that Schumacher would stay with Benetton, Peter Sauber said that "[Schumacher] didn't want to drive for us. Why would I have forced him?". The year was dominated by the Williams of Nigel Mansell and Riccardo Patrese, featuring powerful Renault engines, semi-automatic gearboxes and active suspension to control the car's ride height. In the "conventional" Benetton B192 Schumacher took his place on the podium for the first time, finishing third in the Mexican Grand Prix. He went on to take his first victory at the Belgian Grand Prix, in a wet race at the Spa-Francorchamps circuit, which by 2003 he would call "far and away my favourite track". He finished third in the Drivers' Championship in 1992 with 53 points, three points behind runner-up Patrese.

The Williams of Damon Hill and Alain Prost also dominated the 1993
season. Benetton introduced their own active suspension and traction
control early in the season, last of the frontrunning teams to do so. Schumacher won one race, the Portuguese Grand Prix
where he beat Prost, and had nine podium finishes, but retired in seven
of the other 15 races. He finished the season in fourth, with 52
points.

1994–1995: World Championship years

Schumacher drove the Benetton B194 to his first World Championship in 1994.

Schumacher won six of the first seven races and was leading the Spanish Grand Prix, before a gearbox failure left him stuck in fifth gear. Schumacher finished the race in second place. Following the San Marino Grand Prix, the Benetton, Ferrari and McLaren teams were investigated on suspicion of breaking the FIA-imposed ban on electronic aids. Benetton and McLaren initially refused to hand over their source code
for investigation. When they did so, the FIA discovered hidden
functionality in both teams' software, but no evidence that it had been
used in a race. Both teams were fined $100,000 for their initial refusal
to cooperate. However, the McLaren software, which was a gearbox
program that allowed automatic shifts, was deemed legal. By contrast,
the Benetton software was deemed to be a form of "launch control" that
would have allowed Schumacher to make perfect starts, which was
explicitly outlawed by the regulations. At the British Grand Prix, Schumacher was penalised for overtaking on the formation lap. He then ignored the penalty and the subsequent black flag,
which indicates that the driver must immediately return to the pits,
for which he was disqualified and later given a two-race ban. Benetton
blamed the incident on a communication error between the stewards and
the team. Schumacher was also disqualified after winning the Belgian Grand Prix after his car was found to have illegal wear on its skidblock, a measure used after the accidents at Imola to limit downforce and hence cornering speed.
Benetton protested that the skidblock had been damaged when Schumacher
spun over a kerb, but the FIA rejected their appeal because of the
pattern of wear and damage visible on the block. These incidents helped Damon Hill close the points gap, and Schumacher led by a single point going into the final race in Australia.
On lap 36 Schumacher hit the guardrail on the outside of the track
while leading. Hill attempted to pass but as Schumacher's car returned
to the track there was a collision on the corner causing them both to
retire. As a result Schumacher won a very controversial championship, the first German to do so (Jochen Rindt raced under the Austrian flag).

In 1995
Schumacher successfully defended his title with Benetton. He now had
the same Renault engine as Williams. He accumulated 33 more points than
second-placed Damon Hill. With team-mate Johnny Herbert, he took Benetton to its first Constructors' Championship and became the youngest two-time world champion in Formula One history.

The season was marred by several collisions with Hill, in particular an overtaking manoeuvre by Hill took them both out of the British Grand Prix on lap 45 and again on lap 23 of the Italian Grand Prix. Schumacher won nine of the 17 races, and finished on the podium 11 times. Only once did he qualify worse than fourth; at the Belgian Grand Prix,
he qualified 16th, but went on to win the race. After Schumacher left
Benetton at the end of the year, the team won only one more race before
being bought by Renault in 2000.

Ferrari

In 1996, Schumacher joined Ferrari for a salary of $50 million over 2 years, a team which had last won the Drivers' Championship with Jody Scheckter in 1979 and which had not won the Constructors' Cup since 1983 with drivers René Arnoux and Patrick Tambay
at the wheel. He left Benetton a year before his contract with them
expired; he later cited the team's damaging actions in 1994 as his
reason for opting out of his deal. A year later, ex-Benetton employees Rory Byrne and Ross Brawn, who had been Technical Director at Benetton since 1991,
and who was one of the key members behind Schumacher's title successes
with the team in 1994 and 1995, decided to join Schumacher at Ferrari.
This increased Schumacher's motivation to build a more experienced and
potentially championship-winning team around him.

Ferrari had previously come close to the championship in 1982 and
1990. The team had suffered a disastrous downturn in the early 1990s,
partially as their famous V12 engine was no longer competitive against
the smaller, lighter and more fuel efficient V10s of their competitors.
Various drivers, notably Alain Prost, had given the vehicles labels such
as "truck", "pig", and "accident waiting to happen". The poor performance of the Ferrari pit crews was considered a running joke.
At the end of 1995, though the team had improved into a solid
competitor, it was still considered inferior to front-running teams such
as Benetton and Williams. Schumacher declared the Ferrari 412T good enough to win the Championship.

Schumacher, Ross Brawn, Rory Byrne, and Jean Todt (hired in 1993), have been credited as turning this once struggling team into the most successful team in Formula One history. Three-time World Champion Jackie Stewart believes the transformation of the Ferrari team was Schumacher's greatest feat. Eddie Irvine also joined the team, moving from Jordan.

1996–1999

Schumacher finished third in the Drivers' Championship in 1996, and
helped Ferrari to second place in the constructors' championship ahead
of his old team Benetton. He won three races, more than the team's total
tally for the period from 1991 to 1995. During the initial part of the
1996 season, the car had had reliability trouble and Schumacher did not
finish 6 of the 16 races. He took his first win for Ferrari at the
Spanish Grand Prix, where he lapped the entire field up to third place
in the wet. In the French Grand Prix Schumacher qualified in pole position, but suffered engine failure on the race's formation lap. However at Spa-Francorchamps, Schumacher used well-timed pit-stops to fend off the Williams' Jacques Villeneuve. Following that, at Monza, Schumacher won in front of the tifosi.
Schumacher's ability, combined with the improving reliability of
Ferrari, enabled him to end the season, putting up a challenge to
eventual race and championship winner Damon Hill at Suzuka.

Michael Schumacher and Jacques Villeneuve vied for the title in 1997. Villeneuve, driving the superior Williams FW19, led the championship in the early part of the season. However, by mid-season, Schumacher had taken the Championship lead, winning five races, and entered the season's final Grand Prix with a one-point advantage. Towards the end of the race, held at Jerez,
Schumacher's Ferrari developed a coolant leak and loss of performance
indicating he may not finish the race. As Villeneuve approached to pass
his rival, Schumacher attempted to provoke an accident
but got the short end of the stick, retiring from the race. Villeneuve
went on and scored four points to take the championship. Schumacher was
punished for unsportsmanlike conduct for the collision and was
disqualified from the Drivers' Championship.

In 1998, Finnish driver Mika Häkkinen
became Schumacher's main title competition. Häkkinen won the first two
races of the season, gaining a 16 point advantage over Schumacher.
Schumacher then won in Argentina and, with the Ferrari improving
significantly in the second half of the season, Schumacher took six
victories and had five other podium finishes. Ferrari took a 1–2 finish
at the French Grand Prix, the first Ferrari 1–2 finish since 1990, and the Italian Grand Prix,
which tied Schumacher with Häkkinen for the lead of the Drivers'
Championship with 80 points, but Häkkinen won the Championship by
winning the final two races. There were two controversies; at the British Grand Prix
Schumacher was leading on the last lap when he turned into the pit
lane, crossed the start finish line and stopped for a ten second stop go
penalty. There was some doubt whether this counted as serving the
penalty, but, because he had crossed the finish line when he came into
the pit lane, the win was valid. At Spa, Schumacher was leading the race by 40 seconds in heavy spray, but collided with David Coulthard's
McLaren when the Scot, a lap down, slowed in very poor visibility to
let Schumacher past. After both cars returned to the pits, Schumacher
leaped out of his car and headed to McLaren's garage in an infuriated
manner and accused Coulthard of trying to kill him.

Rumours circulated that Coulthard may be replaced by Schumacher for
the 1999 season and beyond and, in a previous edition of the F1 Racing
magazine, Ron Dennis revealed that he had approached Schumacher to sign
a deal with McLaren. However, peripheral financial issues that tied
Schumacher with Ferrari, such as sponsorship agreements and payment,
could not be rectified in a move to the rival team and so, no deal came
to fruition.

Schumacher's efforts helped Ferrari win the Constructors title in 1999. He lost his chance to win the Drivers' Championship at the British Grand Prix at the high-speed Stowe Corner, his car's rear brake failed, sending him off the track and resulting in a broken leg. During his 98 day absence, he was replaced by Finnish driver Mika Salo. After missing six races, he made his return at the inaugural Malaysian Grand Prix, qualifying in the pole position by almost a second. He then assumed the role of second driver, assisting team mate Eddie Irvine's bid to win the Drivers' Championship for Ferrari. In the last race of the season, the Japanese Grand Prix, Häkkinen won his second consecutive title. Schumacher would later say that Häkkinen was the opponent he respected the most.

During this period Schumacher won more races and championships than
any other driver in the history of the sport. Schumacher won his third
World Championship in 2000
after a year-long battle with Häkkinen. Schumacher won the first three
races of the season and five of the first eight. Mid-way through the
year, Schumacher's chances suffered with three consecutive non-finishes,
allowing Häkkinen to close the gap in the standings. Häkkinen then took
another two victories, before Schumacher won at the Italian Grand Prix. At the post race press conference, after equalling the number of wins (41) won by his idol, Ayrton Senna, Schumacher broke into tears. The championship fight would come down to the penultimate race of the season, the Japanese Grand Prix.
Starting from pole position, Schumacher lost the lead to Häkkinen at
the start. After his second pit-stop, however, Schumacher came out ahead
of Häkkinen and went on to win the race and the championship.

In 2001,
Schumacher took his fourth drivers' title. Four other drivers won
races, but none sustained a season-long challenge for the championship.
Schumacher scored a record-tying nine wins and clinched the world
championship with four races yet to run. He finished the championship
with 123 points, 58 ahead of runner-up Coulthard. Season highlights
included the Canadian Grand Prix, where Schumacher finished 2nd to his brother Ralf, thus scoring the first ever 1–2 finish by brothers in Formula One; and the Belgian Grand Prix in which Schumacher scored his 52nd career win, breaking Alain Prost's record for most career wins.

In 2002, Schumacher used the Ferrari F2002 to retain his Drivers' Championship. There was again some controversy, however, at the Austrian Grand Prix, where his teammate, Rubens Barrichello was leading but in the final metres of the race, under orders, slowed to allow Schumacher to win the race.
The crowd broke into outraged boos at the result and Schumacher tried
to make amends by placing Barrichello at the top step of the podium. At
the United States Grand Prix
later that year, Schumacher dominated the race and was set for a close
finish with Barrichello. At the end he slowed down to create a formation
finish with Barrichello, but slowed too much allowing Barrichello to
take the victory. In winning the Drivers' Championship he equalled the
record set by Juan Manuel Fangio
of five world championships. Ferrari won 15 out of 17 races, and
Schumacher won the title with six races remaining in the season.
Schumacher broke his own record, shared with Nigel Mansell,
of nine race wins in a season, by winning eleven times and finishing
every race on the podium. He finished with 144 points, a record-breaking
67 points ahead of the runner-up, his teammate Rubens Barrichello. This pair finished 9 of the 17 races in the first two places.

Schumacher broke Juan Manuel Fangio's record of five World Drivers'
Championships by winning the drivers' title for the sixth time in 2003, a closely contested season. The biggest competition came once again from the McLaren Mercedes and Williams BMW teams. In the first race, Schumacher ran off track, and in the following two, was involved in collisions. He fell 16 points behind Kimi Räikkönen. Schumacher won the San Marino Grand Prix and the next two races, and closed within two points of Räikkönen. Aside from Schumacher's victory in Canada, and Barrichello's victory in Britain, the mid-season was dominated by Williams drivers Ralf Schumacher and Juan Pablo Montoya, who each claimed two victories. After the Hungarian Grand Prix,
Michael Schumacher led Montoya and Kimi Räikkönen by only one and two
points, respectively. Ahead of the next race, the FIA announced changes
to the way tyre widths were to be measured: this forced Michelin, supplier to Williams and McLaren among others, to rapidly redesign their tyres before the Italian Grand Prix. Schumacher, running on Bridgestone tyres, won the next two races. After Montoya was penalised in the United States Grand Prix, only Schumacher and Räikkönen remained in contention for the title. At the final round, the Japanese Grand Prix,
Schumacher needed only one point whilst Räikkönen needed to win. By
finishing the race in eighth place, Schumacher took one point and
assured his sixth World Drivers' title, ending the season two points
ahead of Räikkönen.

In 2004,
Schumacher won a record twelve of the first thirteen races of the
season, only failing to finish in Monaco after an accident with Juan
Pablo Montoya during a safety car period when he briefly locked his car's brakes. He clinched a record seventh drivers' title at the Belgian Grand Prix.
He finished that season with a record 148 points, 34 points ahead of
the runner-up, teammate Rubens Barrichello, and set a new record of 13
race wins out of a possible 18, surpassing his previous best of 11 wins
from the 2002 season.

2005–2006

Rule changes for the 2005 season required tyres to last an entire race, tipping the overall advantage to teams using Michelins over teams such as Ferrari that relied on Bridgestone tyres. The rule changes were partly in an effort to dent Ferrari's dominance and make the series more interesting. The most notable moment of the early season for Schumacher was his battle with Fernando Alonso in San Marino, where he started 13th and finished only 0.2 seconds behind the Spanish driver.
Less than half-way through the season, Schumacher said "I don't think I
can count myself in this battle any more. It was like trying to fight
with a blunted weapon.... If your weapons are weak you don't have a
chance." Schumacher's sole win in 2005 came at the United States Grand Prix.
Prior to that race, the Michelin tyres were found to have significant
safety issues. When no compromise between the teams and the FIA could be
reached, all but the six drivers using Bridgestone tyres dropped out of
the race after the formation lap.
Schumacher retired in six of the 19 races. He finished the season in
third with 62 points, fewer than half the points of world champion
Alonso.

2006
became the last season of Schumacher's Ferrari career. After three
races, Schumacher had just 11 points and was already 17 points behind
Alonso. He won the following two races. His pole position at San Marino was his 66th, breaking Ayrton Senna's 12 year old record.

Schumacher was stripped of pole position at the Monaco Grand Prix
and started the race at the back of the grid. This was due to him
stopping his car and blocking part of the circuit while Alonso was on
his qualifying lap; he still managed to work his way up to 5th place on
the notoriously cramped Monaco circuit. By the Canadian Grand Prix,
the ninth race of the season, Schumacher was 25 points behind Alonso,
but he then won the following three races to reduce his disadvantage to
11. His win at Hockenheim was the last home win for a German as of now.
After his victories in Italy (in which Alonso had an engine failure) and China, in which Alonso had tyre problems,
Schumacher led in the championship standings for the first time during
the season. Although he and Alonso had the same point total, Schumacher
was in front because he had won more races.

The Japanese Grand Prix was led by Schumacher with only 16 laps to go, when, for the first time since the 2000 French Grand Prix,
Schumacher's car suffered engine failure. Alonso won the race, which
gave him a ten point championship lead. With only one race left in the
season, Schumacher could only win the championship if he won the season
finale and Alonso scored no points.

Before the Brazilian Grand Prix, Schumacher conceded the title to Alonso. In pre-race ceremonies, football legend Pelé presented a trophy to Schumacher for his years of dedication to Formula One.
During the race's qualifying session, Schumacher had the best time of
all drivers through the first two sessions; but a fuel pressure problem
prevented him from completing a single lap during the third session,
forcing him to start the race in tenth position. Early in the race Schumacher moved up to sixth place. However, in overtaking Alonso's teammate, Giancarlo Fisichella, Schumacher experienced a tyre puncture caused by the front wing of Fisichella's car. Schumacher pitted and consequently fell to 19th place, 70 seconds behind teammate and race leader Felipe Massa.
Schumacher recovered and overtook both Fisichella and Räikkönen to
secure fourth place. His performance was classified in the press as
"heroic", an "utterly breath-taking drive", and a "performance that ... sums up his career".

2007–2009 1st Retirement

BMW Sauber with "Thanks Michael" messages towards Michael Schumacher on the back of their cars, Schumacher and Peter Sauber worked together in sports cars prior of entering in F1 in 1992.

While Schumacher was on the podium after winning the 2006 Italian Grand Prix, Ferrari issued a press release stating that he would retire from racing at the end of the 2006 season. Schumacher confirmed his retirement.
The press release stated that Schumacher would continue working for
Ferrari. It was revealed on 29 October 2006 that Ferrari wanted
Schumacher to act as assistant to the newly appointed CEO Jean Todt. This would involve selecting the team's future drivers. After Schumacher's announcement, leading Formula One figures such as Niki Lauda and David Coulthard hailed Schumacher as the greatest all-round racing driver in the history of Formula One.
The tifosi and the Italian press, who did not always take to
Schumacher's relatively cold public persona, displayed an affectionate
response after he announced his retirement.

2007: Advisor at Ferrari

Schumacher at Finali Mondiali celebrations in the F2007

During the 2007 season Schumacher acted as Ferrari's advisor and Jean Todt's 'super assistant'. He attended several Grands Prix during the season. Schumacher drove the Ferrari F2007 for the first time on 24 October at Ferrari's home track in Fiorano,
Italy. He ran no more than five laps and no lap times were recorded. A
Ferrari spokesman said the short drive was done for the Fiat board of
directors who were holding their meeting in Maranello.

On 13 November 2007 Schumacher, who had not driven a Formula One car
since he had retired a year earlier, undertook a formal test session for
the first time aboard the F2007. He returned in December 2007 to
continue helping Ferrari with their development program at Jerez circuit. He focused on testing electronics and tyres for the 2008 Formula One season.

2008: Car development

In 2007, former Ferrari top manager Ross Brawn said that Schumacher
was very likely and also happy to continue testing in 2008. Michael
Schumacher later explained his role further saying that he would "deal
with the development of the car inside Gestione Sportiva" and as part of
that "I'd like to drive, but not too often.".

During 2008 Schumacher also competed in motorcycle racing in the IDM Superbike-series, but stated that he had no intention of a second competitive career in this sport.
He was quoted as saying that riding a Ducati was the most exhilarating
thing he had done in his life, the second most being sky diving.

2009: Planned substitution for injured Massa

In his capacity as racing advisor to Ferrari, Schumacher was present in Budapest for the Hungarian Grand Prix when Ferrari driver Felipe Massa
was seriously injured after being struck by a suspension spring during
qualifying. As it became clear that Massa would be unable to compete in
the next race at Valencia Schumacher was chosen as a replacement for the Brazilian driver and on 29 July 2009, Ferrari announced that they planned to draft in Schumacher for the European Grand Prix and subsequent Grands Prix until Massa was able to race again. Schumacher tested in a modified F2007 to prepare himself as he had been unable to test the 2009 car due to testing restrictions. Ferrari appealed for special permission for Schumacher to test in a 2009 spec car but Williams, Red Bull and Toro Rosso were against this test.
Schumacher was forced to call off his return due to the severity of the
neck injury he had received in a motorcycle accident earlier in the
year. Massa's place at Ferrari was instead filled by Luca Badoer and Giancarlo Fisichella.

Mercedes GP

On 23 December 2009 it was announced Schumacher would be returning to Formula One in the 2010 season alongside fellow German driver Nico Rosberg in the new Mercedes GP team. On 16 November Mercedes had taken over the Brawn GP
team which was their first majority involvement in an F1 team since
1955. Schumacher stated that his preparations to replace the injured
Massa for Ferrari had initiated a renewed interest in F1 which, combined
with the opportunity to fulfil a long-held ambition to drive for
Mercedes and to be working again with team principal Ross Brawn, led
Schumacher to accept the offer once he was passed fit.
After a period of intensive training medical tests confirmed that the
neck injury that had prevented him driving for Ferrari the year before
had fully healed.

Ross Brawn had contacted Schumacher over a potential return to F1
with Mercedes involvement in November 2009, seeking a substitute for the
possibly outgoing driver Jenson Button. On 2 November Rubens Barrichello
had left Brawn GP followed by Button on 18 November with Rosberg
announced by Mercedes as the first replacement driver on 23 November.
The possible return of Schumacher began being reported in the German
press on 13 December and, ten days later, Mercedes confirmed
Schumacher's return completing their line-up.
Schumacher signed a three year contract, reportedly worth £20m, with
Mercedes who were thought to want 22-year-old German driver Sebastian Vettel as a long term replacement afterwards. In March 2010, The Daily Mail reported that Schumacher's deal was closer to £21m (€24m, $32m) a year.

Schumacher's surprise re-entry to the sport was compared to Niki Lauda's return in 1982 aged 33 and Nigel Mansell's
return in 1994 at age 41. Schumacher turned 41 on 3 January 2010 and
his prospects with Mercedes were compared with the record set by the
oldest F1 champion Juan Manuel Fangio who was 46 when he won his fifth championship.

2010: Return to Formula One

Schumacher's first drive of the 2010 Mercedes car – the Mercedes MGP W01 – was at the official test on 2 February 2010 in Valencia. He finished sixth in the first race of the season at the Bahrain Grand Prix. A fortnight later at the Australian Grand Prix Schumacher, after running as high as third on the opening lap, was caught up in a tangle between Fernando Alonso and Jenson Button
at the start and had to pit for a new front wing. He came from the back
to finish in the points in tenth position after spending 20 laps behind
Toro Rosso's Jaime Alguersuari. In the Malaysian Grand Prix Schumacher retired early in the race with a faulty wheel nut. Schumacher qualified 9th in the Chinese Grand Prix
and finished 10th after being passed by several other drivers in the
wet conditions towards the end of the race. After the race former driver
Stirling Moss
suggested that Schumacher, who had finished behind his team-mate in
each of the first four qualifying sessions and races, might be "past
it."
Many other respected former Formula One drivers thought otherwise,
including former rival Damon Hill, who warned "you should never write
Schumacher off." GrandPrix.com identified the inherent understeer
of the Mercedes car, exacerbated by the narrower front tyres introduced
for the 2010 season, as contributing to Schumacher's difficulties. Jenson Button
shed some more light on Schumacher's car trouble when he confessed that
the Mercedes 2010 car was designed for him, and that his driving style
is poles apart from Schumacher.

For the first European race of the season, the Spanish Grand Prix, Mercedes upgraded their car with revised aerodynamics and a longer wheelbase.
Schumacher was ahead of Rosberg in qualifying and the race finishing
fourth after defending his position from reigning world champion Jenson
Button after the pit stops. At the Monaco Grand Prix
Schumacher qualified seventh and finished sixth after passing Ferrari's
Fernando Alonso on the final corner of the race when the safety car
returned to the pits. However he was penalised 20 seconds after the race
by the race stewards dropping him to 12th and thus out of the points.
The stewards, advised by former world champion Damon Hill, judged the
pass to be in breach of rule 40.13 of the sporting code stating that "If
the race ends whilst the safety car is deployed it will enter the pit
lane at the end of the last lap and the cars will take the chequered
flag as normal without overtaking."
Mercedes GP had interpreted "the race control messages 'Safety Car in
this lap' and 'Track Clear' and the green flags and lights shown by the
marshals after safety car line one" to mean that the race would not
finish under the safety car. The FIA subsequently outlined plans to
clarify the regulations and Mercedes GP dropped their plans to appeal.

In Turkey,
Schumacher had his best qualifying session since his return qualifying
fifth ahead of team mate Rosberg in sixth. In the race Schumacher
finished fourth which was his best race finish since his return. However
2 races later at the European Grand Prix
in Valencia, Schumacher finished a lowly 15th – his lowest recorded
finish in his career – after being caught up in a controversial
safety-car ruling, which also ruined the race of Fernando Alonso.
Schumacher was near the front of the field until he was stuck at the
end of the pit lane, following the safety car, while the majority of the
field passed him. In Hungary,
Schumacher finished outside the points in eleventh, but was found
guilty of dangerous driving at 180 mph (290 km/h) while unsuccessfully
defending tenth position against Rubens Barrichello. As a result he was demoted ten places on the grid for the following race, the Belgian Grand Prix, where he finished seventh, despite starting 21st after his grid penalty.

In the Italian Grand Prix, Schumacher missed out on the top ten in qualifying but managed to finish ninth. A fortnight later at the Singapore Grand Prix, Schumacher finished 13th after the Sauber of Nick Heidfeld collided with him on Lap 36, knocking Heidfeld out of the race. At the Japanese Grand Prix, Schumacher finished sixth before a fourth and seventh in the next two races in Korea and Brazil. At the season finale in Abu Dhabi,
Schumacher was involved in a major accident on the first lap, which
occurred after Schumacher was spun around by his teammate Nico Rosberg.
As Schumacher was trying to maneuver his car back around, Vitantonio Liuzzi's Force India ploughed into his Mercedes head-on, barely missing his head. Nobody was hurt in the crash, but Schumacher said the crash had been "frightening."

It was the first season since his début season in 1991 that Schumacher finished without a win, pole position, podium or fastest lap.

At the 2011 Wroom meeting in Madonna di Campiglio,
Italy, Fernando Alonso, the second most successful Formula One driver
still racing, said of Schumacher: "He will be always super class; if the
car is right, he will be a contender that we will fear most."

2011

After an unsuccessful Australian Grand Prix, where he retired due to puncture damage, Schumacher had an average race in Malaysia,
finishing in ninth place to score his team's only points, generally
battling it out with the midfield of the pack. A problem with his DRS
system resulted in Schumacher qualifying only 14th in China, but he worked his way up to 8th place during the race. He added more points with sixth place in Spain, and at the Canadian Grand Prix,
Schumacher had arguably his best performance since returning from
retirement. He finished in fourth position, but ran as high as second in
a race which was almost entirely contested in wet conditions.
Schumacher was passed late in the race by both Jenson Button, who went
on to win the race, and Mark Webber, by the use of the DRS.

In Valencia, he crashed into the side of Vitaly Petrov's Renault
while exiting the pit lane, breaking his own front wing, meaning he had
to pit again the following lap. This incident left him outside of the
points, and eventually finished 17th. In Britain Schumacher locked his front tyres while running behind Kamui Kobayashi,
attempted to take avoiding action, and again broke his front wing
spinning Kobayashi 180 degrees. As well as pitting to replace the wing,
Schumacher served a 10 second stop-go penalty for the incident. Although
working his way up to ninth, Schumacher was unhappy with the result and
described the Kobayashi incident as his misjudgement. He finished
eighth at his home race in Germany, and retired in Hungary with gearbox failure.

Schumacher marked the 20th anniversary of his Formula One début at the Belgian Grand Prix.
He set the fastest time in the first free practice session, but after a
wheel came loose in qualifying, he had start last on the grid. Despite
this, Schumacher put in a very strong performance, ending the race in
fifth place and ahead of his team mate Rosberg. Schumacher continued his
run of form at the Italian Grand Prix, qualifying eighth and finishing fifth. This race saw a notable duel with Lewis Hamilton
for fourth place. Schumacher defended expertly against Hamilton's
faster car, but was also criticised for leaving insufficient overtaking
space.

Helmet

Schumacher's helmets from the 1999 and 2002 seasons. The change of colour occurred midway through the 2000 season, at the Monaco Grand Prix.

Schumacher, in conjunction with Schuberth, helped develop the first lightweight carbon helmet. In 2004, a prototype was publicly tested by being driven over by a tank; it survived intact. The helmet keeps the driver cool by funneling directed airflow through fifty holes.

Schumacher's original helmet sported the colours of the German flag and his sponsor's decals. On the top was a blue circle with white astroids. When Jos Verstappen
was his team-mate, Schumacher added 4 red diagonal strokes over the
visor to differentiate his helmet from his team-mate. After Schumacher
joined Ferrari a prancing horse was added on the back. From the 2000 Monaco Grand Prix,
in order to differentiate his colours from new teammate Rubens
Barrichello, Schumacher changed the upper blue colour and some of the
white areas to red.

He sported one-off helmet designs three times. For the 1998 Japanese Grand Prix, a title decider with Mika Häkkinen, he replaced the German flag with a chequered flag motif and reflective silver replacing the white areas. At the 2004 Italian Grand Prix
the German flag design was replaced with an Italian flag in honour of
his team's home race. For Brazilian Grand Prix race of 2006 (at the time
intended to be his final Grand Prix), he wore an all-red helmet that
included the names of his ninety-one Grand Prix victories. For the 2011 Belgian Grand Prix, Schumacher's 20th anniversary in Formula One, he wore a special gold plated helmet.
The helmet, very similar to his current helmet, included the year of
his début to the present, and the years of his seven world titles.

Honours

Schumacher has been honoured many times during his career. In April
2002, for his contributions to sport and his contributions in raising
awareness of child education, he was named as one of the UNESCO
Champions for sport, joining the other eight which include Pelé, Serhiy Bubka and Justine Henin. He won the Laureus World Sportsman of the Year award twice, in 2002 and 2004 for his performances in the 2001 and 2003 seasons respectively. He has also received nominations for the 2001, 2003, 2005 and 2007 awards. No-one has been nominated more times than Schumacher in the award's seven-year history.

In honour of Schumacher's racing career and his efforts to improve safety and the sport, he was awarded an FIA Gold Medal for Motor Sport in 2006. In 2007, in recognition of his contribution to Formula One racing, the Nürburgring racing track renamed turns 8 and 9 (the Audi and Shell Kurves) as the Schumacher S, and a month later he presented A1Team Germany with the A1 World Cup at the A1GP World Cup of Motorsport 2007 awards ceremony. He was nominated for the Prince of Asturias Award for Sport for 2007, which he won both for sporting prowess and for his humanitarian record.

Championship deciding collisions

Going into the 1994 Australian Grand Prix, the final race of the 1994 season, Schumacher led Damon Hill
by a single point in the Drivers' Championship. Schumacher led the race
from the beginning, but on lap 35 he went off track and brushed the
wall with his right side wheels,
returning to the track at reduced speed but still leading the race. At
the next corner Hill attempted a pass on the inside while Schumacher was
turning into the corner, and Schumacher and Hill collided. Both cars
were eliminated from the race and, as neither driver scored, Schumacher
took the title.
The race stewards judged it a racing accident and took no action
against either driver, but public opinion is divided over the incident,
and Schumacher was vilified in the British media.

At the 1997 European Grand Prix at Jerez, the last race of the season, Schumacher led Williams' Jacques Villeneuve
by one point in the Drivers' Championship. As Villeneuve attempted to
pass Schumacher at the Dry Sack Corner on lap 48, Schumacher turned in
and the right-front wheel of Schumacher's Ferrari hit the left side pod
of Villeneuve's car. Schumacher retired from the race as a result but
Villeneuve finished in third place, taking four points and so becoming
the World Champion.
The race stewards did not award any penalty, but two weeks after the
race Schumacher was disqualified from the entire 1997 season after a FIA
disciplinary hearing found that his "manoeuvre was an instinctive
reaction and although deliberate not made with malice or premeditation.
It was a serious error." Schumacher accepted the decision and admitted having made a mistake. Schumacher's actions were widely condemned in British, German, and Italian newspapers. This made Schumacher the only driver in the history of the sport, as of 2010[update], to be disqualified from a Driver's World Championship,
although the McLaren team was disqualified from the 2007 Constructor’s
Championship and fined $100m for illegal possession of Ferrari technical
information.

Team orders

Historically, team orders have always been an accepted part of Formula One. However, in the final metres of the 2002 Austrian Grand Prix, Schumacher's teammate, Rubens Barrichello, slowed his car under orders from Ferrari to allow Schumacher to pass and win the race.
Although the switching of positions did not break any actual sporting
or technical regulation, it angered fans and it was claimed that the
team's actions showed a lack of sportsmanship and respect to the
spectators. Many argued that Schumacher did not need to be "given" wins
in only the 6th race of the season, particularly given that he had
already won 4 of the previous 5 grands prix, and that Barrichello had
dominated the race weekend up to that point. At the podium ceremony,
Schumacher pushed Barrichello onto the top step, and for this disturbance, the Ferrari team incurred a US $1 million fine. Later in the season at the end of the 2002 United States Grand Prix,
Schumacher slowed down within sight of the finishing line, allowing
Barrichello to win by 0.011 seconds, the 2nd closest margin in F1
history. Schumacher's explanation varied between it being him "returning
the favour" for Austria (now that Schumacher's title was secure), or
trying to engineer a dead-heat (a feat derided as near-impossible in a
sport where timings are taken to within a thousandth of a second). The FIA subsequently banned "Team orders which interfere with the race result", but the ban was lifted for the 2011 season because the ruling was difficult to enforce.

Dangerous driving

Toward the end of the 2010 Hungarian Grand Prix, Rubens Barrichello
attempted to pass Schumacher down the inside on the main straight.
Schumacher closed the inside line to force Barrichello onto the outside,
but Barrichello persisted on the inside at 180 mph (290 km/h), despite
the close proximity of a concrete wall and Schumacher leaving him only
inches to spare. Barrichello said ‘It is the most dangerous thing that I
have been through’, and ‘There is not a rule for that but between
ourselves we should take a line, stick to it and that's it.’ Schumacher
said that ‘Obviously there was space enough to go through. We didn't
touch, so I guess I just left enough space for him to come through.’
Ross Brawn said ‘at the end of the day he gave him enough space. You can
argue that it was marginal, but it was just tough – tough racing.’ A
range of ex-drivers and commentators were highly critical of Schumacher.
Although there was no accident, the incident was ruled to be dangerous
and Schumacher received a 10 place grid penalty for the next race. Schumacher accepted the decision, and apologised.

Other incidents

In 1995, Schumacher and Williams driver David Coulthard
were disqualified for fuel irregularities, after a switch to Renault
engines and Elf oils. On appeal, both drivers had their results and
points reinstated, but both teams lost the points the results would
normally have earned in the constructors championship.

The 1998 Canadian Grand Prix saw Schumacher accused of dangerous driving when his exit from the pit-lane forced Heinz-Harald Frentzen
off the track and into retirement. Despite receiving a 10 second
penalty, Schumacher recovered and won the race. In the press conference,
he publicly accused Damon Hill of weaving dangerously as they fought
for position, stating "If you want to kill me, find some other way", a
statement widely condemned as either hypocritical, or a cynical ploy to
divert attention from his actions with Frentzen.

Two laps from the finish of the 1998 British Grand Prix, Michael Schumacher was leading the race when he was issued a stop-and-go penalty for overtaking a lapped car (Alexander Wurz) during the early moments of a Safety Car
period. This penalty involves going into the pit lane and stopping for
10 seconds, and the rules state that a driver must serve his penalty
within three laps of the penalty being issued. On the third lap after
receiving the penalty, Schumacher turned into the pit lane to serve his
penalty, but as this was the last lap of the race, and as Ferrari's pit
box was located after the start/finish line, Schumacher technically
finished the race before serving the penalty. The stewards initially
resolved that problem by adding 10 seconds to Schumacher's race time,
then later rescinded the penalty completely due to the irregularities in
how the penalty had been issued.

In the Belgian Grand Prix, Schumacher was involved in a race-ending collision whilst trying to lap David Coulthard in heavy spray. After the race he stormed into the McLaren
garage and accused Coulthard of trying to kill him, and McLaren and
Ferrari team members had to separate the drivers. Coulthard admitted
some 5 years later that the accident had been his fault.

During qualifying for the 2006 Monaco Grand Prix
Schumacher set the fastest time, but stopped his car in the Rascasse
corner on the racing line, leaving the corner partially blocked, while
his main contender for the season title, Fernando Alonso,
was on his final qualifying lap. Schumacher stated that he simply
locked up the wheels going into the corner and that the car then stalled
while he attempted to reverse out. Alonso believed he would have been on pole if the incident had not happened, and Schumacher was stripped of pole position by the race stewards and started the race at the back of the grid. In the same qualifying session, Giancarlo Fisichella was similarly found to have blocked David Coulthard from improving his time, but Fisichella was only demoted five places on the grid.

At the 2010 Monaco Grand Prix, the safety car was deployed after an accident, involving Karun Chandhok and Jarno Trulli,
and pulled into the pits on the last lap. Schumacher passed Alonso
before the finish line. Mercedes held that “the combination of the race
control messages ‘Safety Car in this lap’ and ‘Track Clear’ and the
green flags and lights shown by the marshals after safety car line one
indicated that the race was not finishing under the safety car and all
drivers were free to race. This opinion appears to have been shared by
the majority of the teams with cars in the top ten positions who also
gave their drivers instructions to race to the finish line.”
However an FIA investigation found Schumacher guilty of breaching
Safety Car regulations and awarded him a 20-seconds penalty, which cost
him 6 places.

Family and off-track life

Schumacher's younger brother Ralf was a Formula One driver until the end of 2007. Their stepbrother Sebastian Stahl has also been competing as a race car driver.
In August 1995, Michael married Corinna Betsch. They have two children,
Gina-Maria (born in 1997) and Mick (born in 1999). He has always been
very protective of his private life and is known to dislike the celebrity spotlight, preferring a simple life. The family moved to a house near Gland, Switzerland in 2007, a 650 m2 mansion with its own underground garage and petrol station, situated on a private beach on Lake Geneva. The family has two dogs – one stray that Corinna fell in love with in Brazil, and an Australian Shepherd named "Ed" whose entrance to the family made headlines. Schumacher personally drove a taxi through the Bavarian town of Coburg after collecting the dog, enabling the family to catch their return flight to Switzerland. Both Schumacher and the taxi driver were reprimanded by local police.

One of his main hobbies is horse riding, and he plays football for his local team FC Echichens. He has appeared in several football charity games and organised games between Formula One drivers.

In 2004, Forbes magazine listed him as the 2nd highest paid athlete in the world. In 2005 Eurobusiness
magazine identified Schumacher as the world's first billionaire
athlete. His 2004 salary was reported to be around US $80 million. Forbes magazine ranked him 17th in their "The World's Most Powerful Celebrities" list. A significant share of his income came from advertising. For example, Deutsche Vermögensberatung paid him $8 million over three years from 1999 for wearing a 10 by 8 centimetre advertisement on his post-race cap. The deal was extended until 2010. He donated $10 million for aid after the 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake.
His donation surpassed that of any other sports person, most sports
leagues, many worldwide corporations and even some countries. Schumacher's bodyguard Burkhard Cramer was killed in the tsunami along with his two sons.

Schumacher is a special ambassador to UNESCO and has donated 1.5 million Euros to the organization. Additionally, he paid for the construction of a school for poor children and for area improvements in Dakar, Senegal. He supports a hospital for child victims of war in Sarajevo, which specialises in caring for amputees. In Lima,
Peru he funded the "Palace for the Poor", a centre for helping homeless
street children obtain an education, clothing, food, medical attention,
and shelter. He stated his interest in these various efforts was piqued
both by his love for children and the fact that these causes had
received little attention. While an exact figure for the amount of money
he has donated throughout his life is unknown, it is known that in his
last four years as a driver, he donated at least $50 million. In 2008 it was revealed that he had donated between $5M and $10M to the William J. Clinton Presidential Center and Park of Bill Clinton.

Since his participation in an FIA European road safety campaign, as part of his punishment after the collision at the 1997 European Grand Prix, Schumacher has continued to support other campaigns, such as Make Roads Safe, which is led by the FIA Foundation and calls on G8
countries and the UN to recognise global road deaths as a major global
health issue. In 2008, Schumacher was the figurehead of an advertising
campaign by Bacardi
to raise awareness about responsible drinking, with a focus on
communicating an international message 'drinking and driving don't mix'.
He featured in an advertising campaign for television, cinema and
online media, supported by consumer engagements, public relations and
digital media across the world.

On 21 June 2009, Schumacher appeared on the BBC's motoring programme Top Gear as The Stig. Presenter Jeremy Clarkson
hinted later in the programme that Schumacher was not the regular Stig.
The BBC has since confirmed that this is the case; Schumacher was there
on that occasion because Ferrari would not allow anyone else to drive
the one-of-a-kind black Ferrari FXX which was featured in the show. The FXX was presented to Schumacher upon his retirement at Monza in 2006.

* Season in progress.‡ Schumacher was disqualified from the 1997 WDC due to dangerous driving in the European Grand Prix,
where he caused an avoidable accident with Villeneuve. His points tally
would have placed him in second place in that year's standings.† Driver did not finish the Grand Prix, but was classified as they completed over 90% of the race distance.

^ Record shared with Alberto Ascari (1952 Belgian GP–1953 Argentine GP). Some sources credit Ascari with nine consecutive wins, disregarding the 1953 Indianapolis 500
race, in which Ascari did not compete. The American race formed part of
the world championship, but was not run to the same regulations as the
other races and was very rarely attended by world championship drivers.

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